Research Areas

On management, we are conducting several lab and field research projects on the interactions Meloidogyne exigua-arabica coffee and M. mayaguensis-guava. We are also initiating studies on pineapple-parasitic nematodes. All studies are conducted with competitive grant resources obtained from CNPq and Faperj.

At the moment, we are not pursuing studies on Systematics, although several ideas should be put in practice in a near future, in collaboration with nematologists from UC Riverside and Davis.

My main research area is biological control of agricultural pests with entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs).

Although just a few nematologists are dedicated to this area in Brazil, there are great possibilities of successful use of EPNs to control crop pests. At the moment, we are focusing on the control of the guava weevil (Conotrachelus psidii Marshal), an extremely damaging pest to this crop. We are developing strategies with EPNs as part of an integrated management of pests, so that guava growers will use pesticides only as a last resort.

I`m also interested in enhancing EPNs through selective pressure, mutagenesis and trangenesis (crossings). Our goal is to enhance specific EPNs for tolerance to high soil temperature and desication. We have also conducted several lab and field studies aimed to enhance the efficacy of EPNs in the field, mainly on application and formulation technology and avoidance of natural enemies.

We are presently conducting a survey in crop fields and areas of native Atlantic Forest to obtain new EPNs, wich are maintained in our nematode collection and tested against crop pests.

In addition to these applied studies, we are also interested in, and are pursuing studies on basic biological aspects of EPNs, such as embryogenesis and cytogenetics. We are also interested in Taxonomy and Phylogenetics of free-living nematodes, wich have been used as biological models in private and public laboratories throughout the world.